Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of failing to protect federal immigration officers.
"Chicago's Mayor belongs behind bars for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump posted on social media Wednesday morning. "The Illinois governor too!"
The two leaders identify as the Democratic faction.
These remarks come alongside the arrival of state military troops in the Windy City area under orders from the federal administration, notwithstanding strong objections from Illinois authorities such as Pritzker and Johnson.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump has sought to have an African American leader wrongfully arrested," Johnson responded on that day. "I'm not going put."
Pritzker also replied via social platforms, stating: "I will not yield. Now Trump is demanding arrests of elected officials checking his power. What remains on the road toward full-blown autocracy?"
By Wednesday morning, military units from Texas had arrived at the Elwood army reserve center, a military installation roughly 80 kilometers from the city, as the federal government pushes forward with its aggressive crime strategy and mass deportation efforts.
Trump has called Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", despite police data indicate significant drops in many offenses, including homicides.
That day, 200 Texas National Guard troops were scheduled to arrive to the Chicago area, with an additional three hundred Illinois guard personnel preparing to mobilize, per reports. Authorities indicated the soldiers would not perform law enforcement duties but would secure federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Military personnel wearing uniforms with Texas national guard insignia were observed at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Trucks labeled "Emergency Disaster Services" dropped off sanitation facilities and other supplies. Mobile units were set up in rows. Extra barriers was installed around the compound.
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered flight restrictions over the army reserve center for safety concerns until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified deportation operations in Chicago in the past month, sparking protests, particularly near an immigration center in Broadview.
On Monday, state and city initiated legal action targeting the administration, attempting to halt the National Guard deployment, urging a court to stop what they describe as "the president's proclaimed 'Battle'" on the city and state, labeling it "illegal and dangerous".
Legal proceedings on their lawsuit is scheduled for the next day.
Mayor Johnson also signed an executive order on Monday prohibiting federal immigration agents and related personnel from using municipal facilities as operation bases for deportation efforts.
Pritzker has accused the president of using military forces as "staged tools" and "chess pieces".
At a news conference on the previous day, he said that the president is attempting to "rationalize and make acceptable the presence of military personnel under his personal authority."
The historic Posse Comitatus Act limits the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, the president has stated he would be prepared to invoke the emergency powers, which permits a commander-in-chief to send active duty military in regions that are failing to suppress an uprising or are defying national authority.
After beginning his second term, the president has sent or mentioned sending military units to over ten cities, such as major metropolitan areas and West Coast locations like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, arguing that the armed forces is essential to fight violence and defend ICE officers.
Data indicates that most violent crime across the US has decreased in the past few years. In the city, for example, murders were down nearly one-third to under three hundred through August, according to law enforcement reports.
New survey data published on that day revealed that the majority of US citizens disapprove of the deployment of troops without an foreign danger.
